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Thursday, January 12, 2012

Through the Looking Glass 2011

This is a article I put together for the MWC blog as I spread out and plan to do much more freelance type writing this year. I also plan to re-post the majority of it here. This will help me track my work personally and so that those of you that follow me here don't have to hunt around the web for all my work. A run down of 2011 follows after the jump.

Drkmorals here one of the new member to the M “Dub” C team of writers. After some intense negotiations I have been allowed to spread my online nonsense on the front page on a semi regular basis. In fact my label will most likely be [Drkmorals Nonsense] because let’s not sugar coat it, while there is great tips, fun tactics, and other stuff it’s mixed in the insanity that dances through my thoughts, you could easily call it nonsense I know my wife does. However I’ve heard “A little nonsense now and then is relished by the wisest man.” I could do an entire intro post; however that sounds boring so instead let’s do a bit of a 2011 run down of things 40k that GW lobbed into the field and waited to see what would happen.

GREY KNIGHTS

Yes the Grey Knights, the army that starts off Grey and ends up shiny grey when you actually paint it. They burst onto the scene giving people that yell of codex creep not only something to yell about, but a full song with a catchy chorus. The Imperial Grenade maker’s official chapter. The Knights came with a grenade for everything, there are so many grenades in the book that you could see Billy Mays trying to sell them in an infomercial and they ran out of names so they just named one the “rad” Grenade. They come with the Dreadnaught that makes other dreads cry.The Dread that Long Fangs wished they could shoot like, oh and it comes in the standard sedan and luxury models depending on what you’re looking for to boot. This is the army that proved the power of the troop slot like Ork players wish they could. Terminators are a normal choice. Strike squads aren’t shabby at all. You want Purifiers as troops? We can do that too. Super Paladins as troops? Sure no problem, and if you just want points efficient troops you can take a 12 point 3 man squad. That’s right Gretchin you have been out done and out classed in every way. For a few points more than a small unit of objective grabbing Gretchen, and a few points less than a minimum squad of Plague Bearers I can get a troop choice WITH a twin linked str 6 metal box of safety.

The release isn’t perfect, they have the large robot of death with what must be the worst cockpit design in the Imperial armory. I often wonder how many mothers walked by with babies in carriers before the tech marine designed that thing. The kit just screams to be converted though, which makes it not a total loss. The codex is solid on all fronts, new models, solid rules, added fluff that really takes the chapter over the top. The Chapter master appears to literally be the marine from DOOM with the GOD code on. The codex arrived and put a damper on the Dark Eldar in the meta game, as well as adding its name as a solid contender going head to head with IG, and SW still today as a dominate force on the local tourney scenes.

FINECAST

That's right we also get what I can only laugh at in a resin idea... Man I wish I could have been in this business meeting. "Who ever thought of this" must have got a nice bonus. Financially this must have sounded great on paper. Let's use a cheaper material to cut costs, and then let’s not make anything new. Instead we will use the same old molds and designs we already have. Then repackage or re-image the items calling them Citadel Finecast!!! We can market them as a new high end product line without creating a new line!! I am sure everyone clapped and thought that a great idea. No one stood up in the back of the room and asked if these changes would make people upset. That clearly the Hitler Video will be resubbed again to make fun of us as a company. No of course not...and any wargamer knows that not everything that looks good on paper actually turns out that way.

Finecast has turned into the blond girl at the bar. Some people love her and some people can't stand her. She can be fun or no fun depending on who you ask. I overall had been hearing positive stuff about the new models mixed with the anger of the price increase. It appears that the material and the QA department on them isn't exactly perfect. I have seen many reports of poor quality control resulting in mass air bubbles or molds not being full. Then also I am sure several of you online saw that the blond at the bar is apparently a vampire, because she is scared of the sun. That's right I am sure several of you saw the melted model that had been left in the sun. However sadly like real vampires this too appears to be a bit of a stretch and also what I would point out as a Quality control issue. The only model I could find a picture of having melted from the sun was on the "front line gamer blog". Everyone else I could find that mentions it had no pictures and due to the mass of traffic and negative press it appears the original post was taken down and replaced it with a run down of facts.

I’ll save you some time though; the blonde is not a vampire, most people like her, she is flexible, fun to work with, has great detail, and is like most girls.... is expensive.. (note this was not intended to offend any actual Vampires. If you are a actual Vampire reading this I apologize for calling you not real... unless reading that you are not real made you vanish then it doesn't really matter I suppose)

Sister of Battle

WD Codex sisters of battle just adds to the stereotype that when you give some old wargamer’s a group of girls they have no idea what to do with them. They ended up in a WD and although the update proved to be lackluster in the eyes of many it still proved that putting girls in Magazines tends to sell more magazines. I know several people myself included that picked one of these up after I haven’t even looked at a WD in years.

First off the Nuns with Guns are not as faithful as they once had been for some reason. It could be the stock reports GW released the last year(although this year looks good). It could be that Michael Moore has made a documentary about the false emperor, but whatever the reason they now only get D6 Faith points per game turn it appears. They didn’t get access to more vehicles and they lost the ability to use immolators the way they have been in the past. Plus they didn’t even get any new models or at least a release in plastic making this army still one of the most expensive to field on the table. So many things could be said about this update. They are still playable but I think over all most people will agree this was a missed opportunity by Games Workshop to do an older army some justice. We can only hope they have plans to come back to the ladies in the future and as Grandma would say "Show the ladies some respect"

NECRONS

In the Grim dark future there is no Maytag Repair man, because the robots repair themselves. Yes that’s right unless you live under a rock (like a caveman) you know that the Necron codex dropped and the undead pet project of the C’tan have gotten an update. I don’t mean some shabby windows update that makes you restart your computer two times when you clearly don’t want to right now. I mean a real manly update that would make Tim Allen proud. You get all kinds of new shiny for your Metallo inspired army. What is better than metal hungry soulless killing robot zombies? Well fluffy robot zombies of course! Wait, no I don’t mean like that unicorn in Despicable Me, although feel free to model your new army as fluffy bunny crons if that amuses you.

No I mean we actually get a back story that gives them some character and depth. In the past the codex was cold, like your friends ex wife cold. Yeah that was fitting since they are cold lifeless machines and you can argue that they had some cool points with the ancient C’tan waking up and fighting amongst themselves like children using their new robots to play battle chess because the Deceiver tricked the Nightbringer or some nonsense. (Although he should have seen it coming, he is named “the Deceiver”) Really they had some interesting background things about how the army got to where it is, but the units themselves acted out with less character than the borg. Show up, march forward, shoot, get assaulted , and phase out. Oh wait that’s game play.. I get those confused sometimes.. Moving on..

What I am saying is now they have some flavor. They have bitten the hand that feeds them, threw it in a jar and hell they even march the hand out making it epic slap fight things for them. You even get to choose the flavor of the hand. I am a scissors guy myself, but feel free to try out paper or rock. Time still will show how much the new army on the block will shift the meta game and effect the tourney scene though.

So that was it for 2011 for the most part. There was some fun other small things in there. FAQ’s, the Rumor black out, ongoing GW lawsuits but for the most part it wasn’t a huge 40k year. Plus if I talk about everything what will I write about next time?(A actual intro post perhaps?) So here’s to 2012 as I look forward to several interesting things that appear to be coming down the pipe if rumors are true. Tau, chaos, 6th edition, and more appear to be just around the corner and I for one can’t wait.

About Me

You may know Drkmorals from such sites as MWC, FTW, STC, and now 40k Global. His personal site is Emperor's Codex. All these places he randomly spills 40k nonsense and tries to impact the community in a positive manner.